THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
accustomed to shoot the little wood every day when he was at home, 
very often twice a day, and that he scarcely ever had it driven without 
getting one or two shots. As the leaf was then not off the oaks by the end 
of the shooting season that spinney must have proved very productive; 
but it would have been interesting to have heard the other side of the 
question, and to know the views of the neighbouring head keeper and his 
assistant on the adjoining beat ! 
Pheasants are birds of predilections, and one of these in a rather fiat 
country is to go and examine any group of trees situated on an isolated 
hill. They may not stay, especially if it is but a grove, and not large enough 
to be termed a wood, but sooner or later every bird in the vicinity will 
stray up there on a visit of inspection, and this is the opportunity for 
the man on the spot ! Especially do pheasants seek such a place when 
wandering about in a good acorn year, searching for the food they like, 
and if only the group of trees contains some oaks or beeches, the attrac- 
tion to the pheasants will be all the greater. Another fancy is for running 
water, and pheasants almost always prefer to go down a stream, where, 
if they find comfortable quarters, they will take up their residence for 
some time. Pheasants are as much birds of the swamp as of the wood, 
and love to wander about such ground — picking up all kinds of aquatic 
delicacies, even venturing to wet their feet in pursuit of these. 
Besides grubs, of which they consume a vast number, pheasants are 
of further service to the farmer in their taste for the bulbs of buttercups, 
and pignuts (Bunium flexuosum). In the autumn I have found their crops 
quite crammed with these roots, which was unexpected, for when feeling 
them from the outside they felt like acorns. 
When a large stock of pheasants is desired it is necessary to supple- 
ment the natural supply with artificially reared birds, and, even on 
small estates, if only a few extra birds are reared each year it makes a 
wonderful difference when the day of reckoning comes. The cost need not 
be prohibitive, if only a keeper is permanently employed, for the wages 
will be the chief expense. One man can look after the hatching of two 
hundred eggs and the subsequent rearing, if he is allowed an assistant for 
about six weeks in the summer time, and again for a month to assist 
in watching, before the coverts are shot. The hints contained in this article 
therefore will have more reference to small and medium sized shootings, 
than to estates where many thousand birds are reared, and where highly - 
skilled keepers are necessarily employed. 
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